Hi, I was helping a neighbor take off her top..(get your minds out of the gutter! HAHA) of her 91 300SL. All went well until I activated the electric convertible top. Fluid was POURING out of the hole below the drivers sunvisor... I mean in WAS POURING OUT!!

I got the ragtop to go down and we put the hardtop back on so she could drive it but damn is was MESSY..

Any clue how to help her out??

Thanks Chris

 

Chris,
The leak means that the seals in the hydraulic cylinders in the front latches are shot and the top will not operate automaticallly, only manually. You should replace both cylinder seals, left and right, even though only one may be leaking...now. It's only a matter of time for the other side to leak as these things generally fail in pairs.

If you use the Search feature of this forum (Look near the top of the page for the Search link), open it, and type in all the words, hydraulic and cylinder, you will bring up a ton of information about how to R&R the cylinders, where to send them for repair, and other steps like where to buy replacement hydraulic fluid, how to refill the system, etc. You'll need 2 ltrs, by the way.

This repair is not hard and anyone with a C or D level ability can do it in about an hour. Unfortunately the Dealer's costing for this repair is quite high...at least several hundreds of dollars as MB forces you to buy replacement hydraulic cylinders as opposed to what most of us do, have the cylinders rebuilt.

Suggest you take a look at the knowledge already written and come back with any questions and lot's of folks can help you out.

 

That is correct, everything you need to know is here. I wanted to recomend you contact Dennis Fricken for rebuilding the cylinders. He did a great job for me. It will save you a small fortune compared to th MB dealers. You can e-mail him at: mercedescylinders@sbcglobal.net